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You know what goes really well with ice creams and pints in the sun and skiving off work to sit in the park? A trip to a dark, weird little art gallery, that's what. You won't regret it, because it's a month full of art treats; there are erotic drawings, huge immersive sound installations, cryptic film pieces and loads of brilliant feminist history. So enjoy May the way god intended: by going indoors and staring at paintings and weird art films.
Six London art exhibitions opening this May
Beryl Cook/Tom of Finland
This double-header is all about celebrating bodies, sensuality, sexuality, bawdiness and good times. Cook joyously depicted the wild lives of English women with overblown, cartoon-y brilliance, while Tom of Finland painted hyper-erotic visions of idealised male bodies. Whoever you’re here to see, you’re in for a good time.
Beryl Cook/Tom of Finland is at Studio Voltaire, May 15. More details here.
‘Now You See Us: Women Artists in Britain 1520-1920’
For centuries, art was the domain of men - but this lot didn’t give a hoot. Tate Britain is celebrating 400 years of female artists in this country, painters who kicked against the norm and persevered despite encountering endless resistance. In the process, they’ll show how Mary Beale, Angelica Kauffman, Elizabeth Butler, Laura Knight and more forged a path into art for countless women to come.
‘Now You See Us: Women Artists in Britain 1520-1920’ is at Tate Britain from May 16. More details here.
Judy Chicago: ‘Revelations’
Few artists are as deserving of the title ‘icon’ as Judy Chicago; she’s spent her career quite literally blazing a trail (no, literally, there’s been a lot of smoke and fire in her art) for feminist art, creating works filled with trippy swirling colours, clever conceptual installations and hefty amounts of righteous ire. Somehow, this is her first solo show at a major London institution.
Judy Chicago is at the Serpentine, May 22-Sep 1 2024. Free. More details here.
‘Reverb’
The Vinyl Factory/180 The Strand returns with another multimedia art extravaganza. This one explores the ‘intersection of art and sound’, featuring the work of over 100 artists who like making a racket. Carsten Nicolai, Hito Steyerl, Jeremy Deller and Theaster Gates are all involved, and you can expect 180’s usual mix of immersiveness and incredible production value, Plus there’ll be the return of Devon Turnbull’s Hi Fi Listening Room, which got five stars in this very publication not long ago. Recent shows there haven’t been great, but this is promising to be a return to form.
‘Reverb’ is at 180 Studios from May 23. More details here.
Matthew Barney: ‘SECONDARY: Light Lens Parallax’ at Sadie Coles HQ
The modern master of deeply cryptic, heavily symbolic, endurance-testing art returns to London following his blockbuster at the Hayward Gallery two years ago. This time, he’s doing a show in five (!!) parts across galleries in New York, LA, Paris and London, all centred on a film being shown at the Fondation Cartier. Look, do I know what this is about or how it’s going to work? Absolutely not, but it wouldn’t be Matthew Barney if you could understand it.
Matthew Barney: ‘SECONDARY: Light Lens Parallax’ is at Sadie Coles HQ from May 24. More details here.
Vanessa Bell: ’A Pioneer of Modern Art‘
This small display will explore the pioneering role Vanessa Bell played in the development of contemporary art, looking at how she became a leading light of the Bloomsbury Group and helped break down barriers between art and craft in the process.
‘Vanessa Bell: A Pioneer of Modern Art’ is at the Courtauld Gallery from May 25. More details here.
Want more? Here are the top ten exhibitions in London.